Ashley8053

@dst No, the photo booth was not through Royal. I work in marketing and my company had a subscription to a service called "Fotozap" which uses an iPad. I brought my own iPad and iPad stand (Amazon for like, $15). People really liked it, and we got some pretty cool pictures of our guests.

10 hours ago, dst said:

Hi - thank you for posting all this great info, our daughter is getting married on Harmony in November. I know its a different ship but same class and still got a feel for te day.

 

We are doing gift bags for everyone sailing - we have 16 cabins, so a nice group.  Royal said they will deliver them fro 2.00 per cabin. Did you do this?  We are thinking about putting a bottle of champagne in the bags, wondering if that is allowed? I know that everyone over the age of 21 is allowed on bottle of wine so we are going to count the champagne as that. I have two volunteers who will put the bags together as soon as we board the ship (figure that is easier to gt on)

 

Love the dessert bar - can you tell me what type of desserts?

Thanks

You're very welcome, I'm glad it is helping people! Congratulations and good luck to your daughter!

We did gift bags as well, but we just left them on the table by the entrance to the Music Hall - where we also had our photo booth, card box, etc. I think we had around 15, so we just told the cruisers to grab their bag on the way out. Anyone who "forgot" theirs we just brought to dinner that night. By the time the cruise was upon us, we had serious doubts about the competency of the wedding crew so we didn't go with the delivery option. I am PRETTY sure you cannot bring 15 bottles of champagne, unless it's distributed among your guests because as you get on the ship, they will check how much alcohol you have and whether or not it's in the allowable amount. I walked on with maybe 6 bottles, and luckily we were able to tell the security people that 2 bottles belonged to 3 different people, and it was fine. You will certainly not be able to bring the bottles on-board already in bags because they need to scan the alcohol.

The dessert bar was amazing. It was a HUGE variety. I'm having trouble remembering exactly what was there, but I know it was all individual sized items like cheesecake, cookies, cakes, cream puffs, etc. Everything was very tasty and it was a beautiful spread - I highly recommend it. I would probably compare it to the big area of desserts always set up on the buffet, but it was much prettier. 

Hope this helps, let me know if you have other questions! 

Hi, Amy! @SCCruisinCrazy

You're SO welcome for the post. When I was researching for my wedding I couldn't find any useful information from past brides, so I knew I needed to get as many details out there as I could. It's such a huge commitment and they are SO stingy on details before they get your money. 

Congratulations (again!) on your upcoming wedding! I am happy to help as much as I can 🙂

1. I think the only thing that plan will affect is your deposit. You don't get invoiced until all the final details are handed in - which includes headcount - so if you initially ask for the lower package you might pay a bit smaller deposit, but at the end of the day, you will be charged for whatever you end up asking for. I would ask to get a quote on the deposit for each package - If the deposit isn't a huge deal, go with the one you think you are actually going to use. It's far easier to plan ahead with items that may come with the larger package initially, rather than try to "add on" later. Remember, these people are NOT RESPONSIVE AT ALL, so the more straightforward you can be, especially up front, the better the experience will be. We initially estimated 150 people (the max allowed) but ended up only having 100, and we only paid for 100, so it wasn't a big deal.

2.  Group bookings is completely through the cruise line or your travel agent, as are the "perks." The wedding company has nothing to do with it. Our travel agent got us the on-board credit for the booking, but it wasn't really a huge benefit at the end of the day. It was nice to have a group booking because all of our tables were together at dinner, and generally, the cruise knew all of our 15-something rooms were together. The "free stuff" came with the wedding package itself. We got random things like a bottle of champagne, chocolate covered strawberries (which were molded, by the way), and a free dinner at one of the restaurants you normally pay for. My advice is to make friends with the on-board activities director, she got us into reservations that were booked for everyone else, and even got our whole party on the North Star together - which was IMPOSSIBLE through the app.

3. The whole audio fees were quite ridiculous. They absolutely are looking for every possible way to charge you. As you can see on the paperwork there is a charge for a microphone, custom music, etc. We went with the higher priced option, I think it was like, full DJ service, or something? And with that, we got all the other stuff included for free. The music they provide are the very traditional wedding marches, which we didn't want.

4. Yes, all of our normal dinner nights we had about 4 or 5 tables for our party - because of our group booking. If your guests all book their rooms by themselves you will NOT get this automatically. I imagine you would have to call the cruise directly and have them manually link all your rooms, and I'm not even sure if they would accommodate it. It was great for us because we had a lot of room and we each kind of took different seats in our "area" each night to spend time with different guests.

5. As far as photos go, I would 100% tell you to go the direction of having a "guest" do your photos. I wouldn't even mention it to anyone, just do it. I'd be open and honest with your coordinator on-board, but don't even bring it up to the planners ahead of time - they are useless and will just argue with you over policy. To us, the $500 "fee" would have been worth it, with what we saved on their ridiculously overcharged photo package. Luckily, they didn't end up charging us for it. I would definitely say that killing them with kindness is a good way to go. We were nice and friendly with everyone and didn't get charged. If you're a jerk about it, they probably will charge you. If they ask, just tell them that your friend wants to take photos and it wasn't pre-arranged ahead of time. We didn't use any of their flower services. I brought on small flowers in vases to be placed on each table and I brought our two main flower bouquets that sat on the pillars. Everything was fake because they don't allow you to bring on fresh flowers - if you want fresh, you have no choice but to go with their stuff. Your plan to order to the room and tie a ribbon on them sounds good though! 

Let me know if I covered everything, or if you have any more questions! Good luck with planning!

- Ashley

Hey all! I got married on Embarkation Day in August 2018 on Anthem of the Seas. I wrote a VERY DETAILED review of the entire experience on Cruise Critic. I've copied the link below. Check it out and let me know if you have any questions for things I didn't address - I'm happy to help!

Hi, @KJRABINO. We put the 3 day hold on the wedding FIRST. Then we had to book our cruise (1 cabin for the bride and groom.) Once a wedding planner is assigned you fill out a form asking for how many people you will have; I estimated on the high side, the maximum number allowed, actually. About 60 days before the wedding all the final details are due, including the exact number of people. That's when they will charge you as well. So for the wedding invitations, I made sure the RSVP date was well in advance of that 60 day cutoff.

Thanks for sharing! One thing i have been confused about as i start my research on this is whether or not the reception after the ceremony is included in the base "embark on romance" package? I see having an open bar/ food / DJ and all that costs extra, but is having the venue reserved for your guests a certain amount of time after the ceremony included? Or is that an extra cost as well?

The Embark on Romance package includes the venue from boarding, to wedding time until around 2:45 pm. So, it's up to you how you use the time. Our ceremony was only about 10 minutes long, so the remaining time was our reception. It's all in the same location and is included with the initial cost. Everything else as you mentioned is an additional cost.

how did you go about save the dates and invitations and then coordinate that with group booking? did you have a fairly good idea from the save the dates as to how many people would actually attend?

I feel like we'll probably ask everyone and then just send the invites as a formality...does that sound right? lol I'm probably over-thinking it

We didn't actually do any Save-the-Dates, there just wasn't time. We booked the wedding the first week of November 2017, send out the initial round of invites (first tier, we called them, lol) the first week of December and gave people until the new year to RSVP. From there, it was a rolling invite list, based on who came back with a Yes or a No and who was cruising vs. just attending the wedding. We knew we couldn't go over a certain number of non-cruisers, so we just kept track of everything in a spreadsheet. You need to submit everyone's ID information about two months before, so make sure you ask for all that information in the RSVP; we didn't, and it was a pain in the ass to go back and hunt everyone down for that info.

Hey there pretty lady [emoji6] love all the info!!! I was curious about how the Wonderland Buy-Out went... How many people did you have for dinner? How did service go? Did people get to order off the ENTIRE menu? Was service staggered or did everyone get their courses at about the same time?

 

 

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Hi, there! :D I'm happy you found this helpful. All in all, I think Wonderland was one of the best parts of the entire wedding/cruise. We had a total of 32 people, so we did not fill the entire restaurant, but it was all ours so we essentially could have spread out. We sat in basically 3 large tables of 10 or so each. We did get to do the whole "paint the menu" reveal, but essentially, we were treated to everything on the menu. It was a constant stream of food being dropped off at the tables, continuously from the time we sat down. They went through all of the different varieties of food they offered and we could all taste and share everything. I think it actually worked out really well for our group - although we were literally so stuffed we couldn't breathe, especially after the amazing desserts. Did that answer your question? Like I said, I was SO tired I missed a lot of Wonderland, which is probably my biggest regret of the whole trip.

Thank you SO much for sharing! I've been wondering how the initial steps go (booking your own self, booking group, etc). All of this information was super helpful!

You're SO welcome! I'm glad you found it helpful. If you have any questions, let me know!

If you've come across this thread, you are probably doing exactly what I was doing a year ago - frantically searching the internet for some detailed glimpse into a "cruise wedding." I was not very successful in my search and ended up booking a cruise wedding feeling pretty blind. Royal Caribbean makes you put down a lot of money BEFORE they provide you with any details or options for your wedding. It was a scary experience that I don't think any bride-to-be should have to deal with, so I've decided to post a VERY detailed review of my experience, as well as links to all the documents I was provided through the process. If you have any questions at all, let me know and I will answer them based on my experience! All in all, I got married onboard RCCL's Anthem of the Seas on August 4, 2018 and it was wonderful. Read on for more...

My Experience Overview:

Much like many people on Cruise Critic have said, the Royal Celebrations/Royal Ocean Events company is a big hot mess (I'm really not even sure what their official name is because I saw both names used throughout the planning process. I suspect they may have re-branded since so many brides have ripped them apart on the internet.) My original wedding planner (Laura) left the company about three months into my planning and I (along with all of Laura's other clients) were basically handed off to Larissa. She was NOT great to work with - very unresponsive, often sending me questions that I've answered several times prior in our email chain or contradicting herself. She never once offered a phone call to go over anything; she only communicated via email. (She is getting a very low score from me on my post-wedding evaluation.)

So, the basics - We went with the "Embark on Romance" package, fancy talk for an embarkation day wedding. It was great for us because we had a lot of people we wanted at our wedding, but knew not everyone would go on the cruise and this way, our local guests could get off the ship after the ceremony/reception. I started by downloading the brochure posted online and then calling the company to inquire about what dates were available. (I think I called in early November 2017.) They only allow 2 weddings per embarkation day, so I got lucky that there was a 2018 date available for us. They will hold your date for three days. In that three days you need to book your cruise and pay their wedding fee. The forms you need to fill out are as follows: (1) the coordinator agreement and (2) the payment authorization. I was originally charged $5,992 USD (package is $5,600 plus tax) and it was split into two charges: one for ROE (Royal Ocean Events) and one for RCCL (Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines). Note: My card denied this charge and thought it was fraud three times, so you may want to give your bank a heads up before they process it. I quickly received confirmation that they received everything from me, but it was then at least two weeks until my coordinator was assigned to me. Once that happens, they send you over the full wedding choices document. In my pre-booking research I had found an old wedding form posted online, but a lot has changed since then. They no longer offer a sit down meal, and there's no pre-wedding hair and makeup services or tux rental.

Basic rundown of the day:

9:30 am - Everyone (guests, cruisers, wedding party, etc.) need to be at the cruise port, for me it was Cape Liberty in Bayonne, NJ. Note: Everyone is going to see you, and you will see your fiancé, there's no way around it. Myself and my bridesmaids arrived in casual wear and changed inside. Everyone else - minus the groom - arrived dressed. You will be met by the on-site wedding coordinator, walked through security and checked in for the cruise. Non-cruisers will check in and receive a lanyard with their entry pass. Another huge thing to mention: When you turn in your final paperwork you will need to hand in all your non-cruisers' full names (as it appears on their ID), date of birth, and ID number (passport or drivers license.) This was SUCH a pain to collect from everyone, so think about incorporating this information in your RSVP.

10:30 am (Approximately) - Everyone boards the ship; guests are taken to the venue. Wedding party can select two cabins for getting ready in. For us, we didn't get on the ship until 11, or maybe a little after. They said they were having issues with the ship sanitization. For us, this was an absolute MESS. The coordinator took EVERYONE to the Music Hall first, which caused mass confusion to the guests and my wedding party who were all supposed to be getting ready but somehow got dispersed into the Music Hall with everyone else. Please make sure you tell the coordinator you want the wedding party taken directly to the rooms to get ready and NOT stop off at the Music Hall. We all got changed into our dresses and had some time for a few quick photos before the coordinator came up and got us to go down to the ceremony. (Note: Hair and makeup must be done before you get on the ship. Our getting ready that morning started at 5 am.)

12 pm - Wedding/Reception begins; mine actually began around 12:15 because we got on the ship late. The length of the ceremony is up to you, mine was about 10 minutes, and I brought my own officiant. I HIGHLY recommend doing that. If you use the boat's officiant it will be "Captain Arnold" - note, he's not the real captain of the ship. He's a very sweet old man, but he's a very slow talker and I think if he did the ceremony it would have dragged on and been very dry. If you do have your own officiant, be aware you will need to take care of the marriage license yourself; they won't help at all. In NJ, if you don't live in the state, you have to appear in person to apply for the license. We're from PA, so this was a bit of a pain. For the wedding, there is an aisle and folding seats set up in standard wedding format. After the ceremony, I was promised that the wedding party could go up to the top deck and take a few photos, but it raining, so we all just went into the casino nearby and got a group shot. During that time, the seating on the dance floor was removed. We then went back in for introductions and first dances. Then, the food was served. I do have a few notes about the food which I will get to more below.

2:30 pm - All non sailers need to be escorted off the ship at this time. They let me know that since we were late getting on the ship, they would extend our reception a bit, so they didn't start pushing people to get off the ship until around 2:45 or closer to 3. Please plan ahead of who will take your flowers/decorations home, since you will be cruising and don't want to be stuck with all that stuff.

When I first submitted my paperwork, I was planning to have the full allotment of 150 people attending. (75 non cruisers, 75 cruising.) That caused some drama because Laura told me I could only have 100 - AFTER I had already sent out 'Save the Dates'. I begged and pleaded and with some convincing I was granted 150 people, but it was very frustrating because all of RCCL's information says 150 is allowed. At the end of the day, we only ended up having 102, so it wasn't a big deal, but be aware of this, since the website info is incorrect. Also, it's good to know that kids don't count towards your final count. In their words: "Anyone under the age of 12 does not count in your total numbers count. For the bar and beverage package any guest under 3 does not get charged for beverages. Ages 4 to 20 would be the soft drinks/juices option and 21 up you can make the choice with beverages."

As far as wedding location goes on the ship, if you look up past photos and brochures, you can see they used Two70, which is an absolute gorgeous location. However, they no longer allow this for a wedding - and trust me, I begged and pleaded for it. If you have more then 25-30 people, they will put you in the Music Hall. Any less, they put you in Boleros. I was a little disappointed to hear that they don't do any additional decorating in the Music Hall for weddings - what you see is what you get. However, the space is absolutely gorgeous and it turns out, I really didn't need anything additional. I did bring single flowers in a candlestick onboard to put on each little lounge table, just to add some color. I also asked about the ceremony decorations and I was told that on Anthem they do a wedding arch and not the two "pillars" that you see in a lot of photos. I thought the arch was hideous so I told them I didn't want that. At some point, I saw a picture of pillars on the Anthem so I asked if they could bring them to put on either side of my fiance and I for the ceremony. I was told yes, but when we arrived it was just small round tables, no pillars. I would have preferred pillars, but at the end of the day it was a minor hiccup that didn't really matter that much.

I mentioned above about the food, which I have a lot of feedback on. Right off the bat, they will tell you the cake feeds 50 people. Since we were having at least 100 people, I requested a second cake. The additional cake is about a $400 add on. Please note - this is NOT necessary. I wish I could get that $400 back because we had an entire cake that no one even cut, so trust me, one cake is enough. You will notice in the wedding packet, it doesn't have desserts, I guess they think the cake is the dessert, but I requested a dessert station, which they granted, for $17 per person. The desserts were good, I'd recommend those. For food, we went with the Tier One Hors d'oeuvres, a salad station and a pasta station. Honestly, all the food was GREAT. However, the set up was a big huge pain - probably the biggest disappointment in the day. They had three stations set up in this order: [salad] [Pasta] [sides and Dessert]. The pasta station is manned by two chefs who are making the pasta as people come up and order; it's not pre-made. So basically, it took FOREVER. The issue was that people would get in line, get salad and then get stuck behind everyone backing up at the pasta station. I guess I just had polite guests because no one was skipping around the pasta line to continue to get other food, even if they didn't want pasta. This caused a huge back up that wrapped around the entire room. I actually had a few quests who didn't get to eat because of the line, so please - if you get the pasta station, ask them to set it up at the END of the table arrangement, or, by itself. The other thing that worried me was the "No bartenders" situation. Even thought the Music Hall has a great bar, they don't man it during weddings. All the drinks are bused. So people walk around and ask what you want, go back, make/get the drink and bring it back out. I thought this was going to be an issue, but I will say they were ON TOP of it.

As far as the cruise itself, the wedding company does nothing regarding reservations and travel planning. I have a friend who is a travel agent and she was able to create a group booking (you need an 8 cabin guarantee for that). I think we got pretty standard pricing, maybe $50 or so less per person then the cheapest online site, so I guess the group rate was a slight break. The great thing was that we all got onboard credit, so that was a plus.

Since the reception absolutely had to end by 3 pm, I decided to have a private reception that night for my friends/family who were cruising. Essentially, they let you do a "buy out" of one of their specialty restaurants. We decided on Wonderland, which cost $4,400 for the food, and $1,500 for drinks for a total of $5,900. Honestly, this was a GREAT idea and I highly recommend it. The food was absolutely amazing, but unfortunately, I was SO exhausted that about halfway through the dinner I thought I was going to fall asleep in my food, so I went to bed and missed dessert, lol. (I highly recommend taking a nap in-between sail off and dinner. I didn't do this, and I regret it.)

A few other notes I will point out - The coordinators on-site are downright AMAZING. They more than made up for the awful experience with the pre-wedding coordinators. Tammi - the main coordinator - and her team seriously made the day happen, and followed my instructions to a T. She called me two days ahead to go over everything and completely calmed me because I was freaking out due to my negative interactions with Larissa. The other coordinator there was Sandra, she's in charge of the on-ship activities. She will be your best friend, trust me. She helped me set up everything as far as NorthStar reservations for the group, dinners together, excursions, etc. There wasn't a day on the cruise that I didn't call her for something and she was so, so helpful.

The last thing I want to touch on is photography. Their photo packages are ridiculously expensive for what you get, so after some internet research, this is what we did - My maid of honor and her husband knew a photographer who they were friends with. My fiancé and I met with him and his wife and we hit it off. We hired them as our photographers and we paid for them to come on the cruise. As far as Royal Caribbean knew, they were attending the wedding as "guests", not as paid vendors. So, yes, I was a little deceptive on that front, but this way, I had a photographer for everything - including the cruise - and I will get all the photos from someone I trust, not pay piecemeal through a randomly hired cruise ship photographer. Obviously, hired vendors are a BIG no no, but - even if you want to be truthful, they only charge $500 as a fee if you bring a photographer. They won't come right out and tell you this, but at the end of the day, that $500 is still cheaper then their lowest cost package which is over $1,000 for only 1 hour of photos. Do with that information what you want, but I will say that having a photographer with us was so, so perfect.

Ok, I think that is literally EVERYTHING I can think of. Like I said, some things were frustrating and some things didn't go exactly as planned, but it all ended fine. I heard from so many people that it was the most unique wedding they had ever been to. And now, I have a reason to push hubby for an anniversary cruise every year! :D:D

Files:

Coordinator Agreement Doc: https://ashleyandgentry.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/coordinator-agreement.docx

Payment Authorization: https://ashleyandgentry.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/payment-authorization-form.docx

Embark on Romance Package Options: https://ashleyandgentry.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/embark-on-romance-wedding.docx

Dessert Option: https://ashleyandgentry.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/dessert-package.png

Wedding on Anthem Picture, from Royal: https://ashleyandgentry.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/arch-on-anthem.jpg

Wedding on Anthem, Real life, from one of my guests: https://ashleyandgentry.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/our-wedding-set-up-no-pillars.jpg

I don't think I ever responded to your post, I'm sorry! Happy soon-to-be wedding! I was actually speaking to Laura a couple weeks back and she mentioned your April 1st wedding. Since she has now left the company, do you think you could share photos of the set up of the day? I also want a full recap when you're back! We are doing an embarkation day wedding. I'm debating about going to a local judge a few days before the wedding and making it "official" then to avoid dealing with the legal paperwork with the company. But, it sounds like it wasn't so bad for you, maybe I'll just let them do it. We are doing welcome bags for our cruising family members. Non-cruising guests will only get a cookie to take home. No cruise, no cool favors! haha. Again, good luck and if you're reading this after 4/1, congratulations! I can't wait to hear about your day.

Congratulations! We are a group of 56 so much less than yours. I was opting for Boleros (can hold up to 75 people only) at first because I wanted it to be intimate but Laura suggested not to do that becuase we might feel tight in there. So, Music Hall it is. We don't really mind. We are go with the flow kind of people. We tried to do the restaurant buy out of Chops but was not approved by RC. Probably my fault tho for trying to book it so late. Lol I'm a big procrastinator. Since we are getting married on a Sea Day, I had to notarize some papers then have them certiied by the county clerk of which the notary was qualified then went to NYC to get apostille by the NY dept of state. Then scanned them & emailed to Laura. Once she got the approval from the Bahamas, I sent her the paperwork via FedEx.

I just sent in my wedding documents for the actual wedding yesterday. I still have to finish the DJ form. We just put our guest welcome bags into 2 big suitcase and a small one to be brought on board (by groomsmen) to be given to our steward. The steward will then put them in the designated rooms during turn down service. I guess that's all for now. Will update when I get more info.

Are you getting married on a sea day or embarkation? Are you doing welcome bags?

This is so helpful- thank you for posting! My fiance and I are booked aboard the Liberty of the Seas departing 2/17/19 and hoping for a wedding at sea on the 18th. I've sent my forms to Royal Events and am currently waiting for them to assign me a coordinator, take the deposit, and send the full book of options that was mentioned in this thread. Fingers crossed for me- planning with them sounds like a nightmare!

Honestly, I have NOT had big issues! I have heard they changes the company they did wedding with. I am currently planning my August 2018 wedding and really haven't run into major challenges.

Would you mind if I emailed you as well?! My fiance and I are looking at a 2020 wedding but online it doesn't say much on their brochure. It would be a great if you could hep us out as well a little bit. I would truly appreciate it. :*

Of course!

Hello. We are looking at a 2020 wedding but I have so many questions & can't seem to get the exact answer. Do you have any info you could share other than the brochure? It shows calla lilies but I was told they only offered roses. Hair & make up sessions were "ranges" and I couldn't figure out the photography packages. I am also curious about the photograph themselves as DF HATES having his picture taken and I like the idea of photojournalism more than portraits. Help...:-)

I'm happy to share what I have! The brochure on their site is quite different than the actual offerings. They only give you the official option book once you put a deposit down, but I can send it to you and share my experience and learnings. Shoot me an email. My address is my full name (First name is on my user name) Erin Miller at GMail, no spaces between my first middle and last name.

I will be getting married on RCCL Anthem of the Seas on August 4, 2018. So far, the experience with "Royal Celebrations" has been fine. Sure, I don't get to pick every minute details about the wedding, but honestly, that takes some stress off. Our coordinator, Laura, has been great and is fairly responsive to my calls/emails, so no complaints there. Everyone I tell about my wedding plans are so impressed and think it's a really neat, unique idea - which is exactly what my fiance and I were going for. Here's hoping everything keeps going smoothly!

I'm also getting married on the Anthem! August 4th, 2018 to be exact. I have between 100 and 150 guests and have also been assigned the Music Hall. (I actually heard they only use two places for Weddings on the Anthem now - the Music Hall and Boleros.) Laura is my coordinator as well, she has been good to work with so far. I can't wait to hear all about your wedding. If you ever want to chat/exchange ideas, let me know!

Hi, everyone. We are getting married on Anthem on April 1st (not a joke). Lol we planned our cruise wedding since 2016. We started with Puneet then I think Megan who got pregnant and is on maternity leave. I learned all this from our current planner, Laura Goodrick. She's pretty great so far. I decided to call the # one day last week just to see if I could talk to anyone about the wedding since I kind of ignored them from when they sent me paper work to fill out (apostille, etc). Laura emailed me the wedding papers and we went through the whole thing. I asked my questions (from my list I had prepared) and she also explained things I didn't even know to ask about. She said I can email her any other questions I have so I'm not really too worried about the planning part. I gotta say I don't like the fact that the whole thing has to be only 3 hours and has to end at 7 pm. Also I'm not too keen on the venue. In the photos back in 2016, it showed that the venue was the Solarium which is my favorite spot so to have it changed was def a disappointment. The Music hall just seems too big and open for our ~50 guests. Going to stay positive tho. Lol I'm not really even a picky bride so I'll just go with the flow.

Hi, there! I am actually getting married on the Anthem in the Music Hall in August of this year. (8.4.18 to be exact!) I was looking for the same thing but have not had much luck. Even my wedding coordinator only had generic photos of the Music Hall, and none during a wedding. I will keep a look out and share with you if I find anything. In the meantime, maybe my comment will bump this post up to someone who can help! If not, I can definitely supply you pictures after my wedding this August. In the meantime, I'd love to talk about your plans and exchange ideas :)

- Ashley

So I should have specified, the room is ONLY for the two of us to stay/sleep in, but since a lot of friends and family will also be cruising with us, I'd love to have a gathering spot for a drink or just meeting up before dinner. It sounds like both options would be tight. I do like the idea of having two toilets in the cabin so will likely stay away from SJS. Any other suggestions, perhaps with a larger sitting area or balcony? Thanks, everyone!

Hi, all. My fiancé and I are getting married on board the Anthem of the Seas leaving Cape Liberty in August 2018. After the ceremony in port, we're doing the 5 night sailing to Bermuda. Since this is a "mini honeymoon" of sorts, we want to have a nice, large room where our friends can come visit, sit on the balcony and enjoy a drink or two before going to dinner. We are currently booked in a category FJ, a family junior suite on deck 9. For around the same price we could do a JS or Junior Suite. Does anyone have any thoughts on a particular cabin, or a particular floor to recommend? I keep looking up reviews and they seem very similar, so hoping my fellow cruisers could share their experience - thank you!

Haha, yes I should have known I was not the only inquisitive poster about that. I will try to be patient as well, thank you! :-)

I think everyone is [not so] patiently waiting for those dates to be announced for all ships. :) Wiser posters than I have said we're probably looking at early next year before they are announced.

I should correct myself a bit. Right now, there are a few options for 7-night cruises out of NYC in April, but NOTHING has been announced for May and beyond. Looking more for "Summer" months than Spring - sorry about that confusion!

Hi, all. I am hoping to do a Spring/Summer (May, June, July) 2019 RCCL cruise out of Bayonne, NJ. I am looking for a 5-night cruise, likely to Bermuda. Right now, the site is only showing the 7-night options. Does anyone know when those 2019 dates would be announced for 5-nighters? Or do we think there won't be any 5-night options in that timeframe?